The first open honor trial in more than three years is scheduled to take place this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the trial room of Newcomb Hall.
The accused students are a male third-year College student and a female third-year College student who have asked to remain anonymous until their trial but have agreed to explain their rationale for having an open trial to The Cavalier Daily before the trial.
The students said they are charged with collaboration on a homework assignment in a politics class. The case was initiated by a teaching assistant in that class.
Although the students admit to collaborating on the homework, they said they do not think they committed an honor offense.
"What we did was acceptable under the terms of the syllabus and the terms of the honor code and that, as a result, our intent wasn't to be dishonest," the male student said.
The homework assignment in question counts for a "very minimal" portion of the final grade in the class, the male student said.
In order to be convicted of an honor offense, an accused student must be found guilty on the basis of act, intent and seriousness.
"The issues at hand are from the intent and seriousness angle," the male student said.
The accused students opted to waive their right to confidentiality in order to give other students the chance to witness the honor process, they said.
"We decided we wanted to make sure that people had a chance to see what was going on inside of honor," the male student said.
Open trials proceed in the same fashion as closed trials, and accused students will be treated identically in both, Vice Chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly said.
The accused students said they are not having an open trial to make a statement about the honor system.
"We're having an open trial so people can get an insight into the system and not to expose anything," the male student said.
He added that he didn't feel he had been treated unfairly.
The students did have a couple of complaints about the system thus far.
"My major gripe with this is the fact that it's just taken so long," he said.
The students were informed in May that they were being brought up on honor charges, but the interviews for the female accused student and the male accused student were not until Sept. 17 and Oct. 13, respectively.
The female accused student said she found another part of the process unpleasant.
"Up to the point that we were allowed to choose a counsel, it just felt like there was no one on our side," she said. "Instead of it being you're innocent until proven guilty, it really felt like the other way around."
Because the facts of the case are the same for both students, they will be tried at the same time but will have two separate verdicts, a counsel for the accused Ben Sachs said.
"They usually each have their own counsel, but they elected, in this particular case, to have us represent them as a unit," Sachs said.
The male student said although he does not know what to expect at trial, he does not see any reason why he should be found guilty.
"I know that we didn't do anything dishonest," he said. "I know that, despite any reservations or concerns I may have about honor in general, I still have faith in that things are going to do what they're supposed to do."
Forty-five tickets were available to the public Monday morning and had all been distributed by Monday afternoon, Ackerly said. The Honor Committee is looking into the possibility of broadcasting the trial to another room in Newcomb Hall for more spectators.
Read More
Shots fired reported at 100 block of Harmon Street, no injuries reported
By Thomas Baxter | 4 days agoThis is the first community alert of June.
Full Board discusses financial aid challenges, medical research and entrepreneurship
By Thomas Baxter | 5 days agoBoard members discussed the Pan-University Entrepreneurship Initiative, a project that aims to help develop more entrepreneurial ventures at the University.
Finance Committee approves 2024-25 operating budget and Major Capital Plan
By Zackary Holt | 5 days agoThe proposed 2024-25 fiscal year budget for the Academic Division includes a 6.8 percent increase in spending over the previous year.
